Episode #148 : Paradise Towers

"Attention all robotic cleaners. Attention all robotic cleaners. At last Kroagnon can leave the basement prison they trapped his bodiless brain in. And return in this borrowed body to the corridors and lifts of his own creation. They buried me away because I wanted to stop them using the Tower. And now you and I will destroy them."

Episode 157:    Paradise Towers.
Companions:   7th Doctor and Mel.
Air Date:          5th to 26th October 1987.

Mel wants to go swimming so the Doctor takes her to a tower block called Paradise Towers where there is reputed to be a fantastic pool. When they arrive they discover that the place is far from being the superb leisure resort they had expected - it is run-down and dilapidated. The hallways are roamed by gangs of young girls known as Kangs; the apartments are inhabited by cannibalistic old ladies, the Rezzies; and the building is managed by a group of dictatorial caretakers, presided over by the Chief Caretaker. The latter is in thrall to the disembodied Great Architect Kroagnon, the building's creator, who is using giant cleaning machines systematically to kill all the occupants as he considers that they are spoiling his creation by living there.

It is a shame to see a show I love and enjoy dropping to the levels of this story. The story itself and the plot behind it are fairly good considering but Paradise Towers is spoilt by the appearance of everything. The costumes are just terrible for instance looking as though the costume department spend all of five pounds on each one. The look of the sets, especially the Rezzies' apartment, look like they came from an 1980's sit com rather than a good piece of family entertainment. The cheapness of the episode really spoils itself for my taste.

The Doctor has thankfully toned down his clownish behaviour since the prior story and you can see McCoy settling into the role nicely. The jokes and altered quotations are fading to the point that you don't really notice them when they are said. Mel on the other hand is till very annoying. I can't wait for her to leave the series for a better companion.

Paradise Towers features a celebrity known to British audiences, Richard Briars. He was famous mostly for The Good Life (a sit com about class values mainly) and for some Shakespearean work. In this adventure he must have needed the cash because even though it is Doctor Who no self-respecting actor would have wanted the role of the Great Caretaker after reading the script. Then there is the Hitler moustache... what were the BBC thinking?

Paradise Towers plays on a lot of attitudes that were relevant in the 1980s and puts them into a somewhat surreal environment. If this had been made now with the backing that the show currently has, I can see this being one that might have fitted in well for the Matt Smith era because of the somewhat odd and surreal nature of his run on the show.

This adventure is not recommended by me. There are much better ones for Sylvestor McCoy coming up that watching this one again just makes me cringe. Doctor Who deserved better.